EU court rules obese people ‘disabled’ in the workplace

FATNESS could be a disability for the purposes of European Union equality at work legislation, Europe’s highest court has ruled.

The judgment means companies will be required to treat obese workers as disabled, providing them with larger seats, special parking spaces and other facilities.

“Obesity can constitute a disability within the meaning of the Employment Equality Directive,” the European Court of Justice ruled.

It defined the concept of “disability” as being where, “under particular conditions, it hinders the full and effective participation of the person concerned in professional life on an equal basis with other workers”.

The ruling follows the case of Karsten Kaltoft, a Danish childminder, who claimed he was sacked by his local authority employer because he was so overweight.

Important to the ruling, is the judgment that the origin of the disability is irrelevant even if someone’s gross obesity is caused by overeating or gluttony.

The Danish local authority that employed Kaltoft fired him amid reports that the 159kg man was so fat he required help from a colleague to tie up children’s shoelaces.

Following his case, EU employers will have to bear the costs of litigation and finding ways to ensure that fat workers are not placed at any disadvantage to slimmer colleagues.

“This is a real problem for employers. The directive is still not clear enough for them to be sure that they’re going to be on the right side of the law,” Julian Hemming, employment partner at UK law firm Osborne Clarke, said.

“This could mean that businesses face claims from obese staff for failing to make reasonable adjustments to their role if the job entails tasks where they would be on an unequal footing with other staff, tasks that require full mobility such as stacking shelves in a supermarket, for example.

“Employers also need to consider whether any adjustments for obese staff could trigger employee relation issues and related claims from other members of staff who feel that their obese colleague is getting away with doing less work or avoiding manual tasks – and they are doing more of this work as a result.”

But Vanessa Di Cuffa, an employment law partner, welcomed the judgement. “It is right that the EU has moved forward with enshrining this into law.”

The EU court declined to define what level of body mass index (BMI), the measure used to calculate the degree of obesity in an individual, would be required to class someone as disabled, ruling that decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis.

Lawyers have warned that the lack of clarity will lead to confusion. – The Telegraph